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I would pursue a career in theoretical physics, but there's no immediate demand in the US for them, since the US has like a million dollar science budget. All of the research is pretty much directed in Europe now. If I did go through with the PhD, and if things over here stay their course, I'd probably end up in either finance or teaching

qm is really hard because nothing makes intuitive sense. you can have photons going through two slits making an interference pattern on the screen but the moment you try and take a measurement at any slit without altering the course of the photon the pattern disappears. you can have a particle in a finite potential well (think ball in a box with finite walls) that classically doesnt seem to have enough energy to escape but still has some small probability of disappearing and reappearing outside the well. its so WEIRD.

Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion but if you didn't finish Infinite Jest you can't really write off the novel and say you got the point, it requires full reading to truly understand what's going on. Repeated readings, even. How far along did you get into it?

Well, I open my eyes and I see things. I've seen spirits moving through the walls. I've seen a vortex coming through the wall. I've seen amorphous little balls of light bouncing all around in the front yard through the window. I've seen giant bugs on the floor. I was in a hotel room in Amarillo, Texas, and all I remember is standing on the bed and seeing the whole wall in front of me filled with lights that were [makes popping sound] popping like popcorn out of the wall. Then I'll wake up and I go "Wow, I was standing on my bed and staring at this wall."

The real strengths if these stories lay in the shattering conclusions of each of them. I suppose referencing tCitR have it bonus points as well. Paula was quite enjoyable, a real mindfuck of a read. The whole publication after death and leaked on the internet thing is fun too.

Well everyone is entitled to their own opinion but if you didn't finish Infinite Jest you can't really write off the novel and say you got the point, it requires full reading to truly understand what's going on. Repeated readings, even. How far along did you get into it?

- Most people don't have time to read a novel as long as Infinite Jest over and over again.
- Statements like 'everyone should do x' should be avoided. There's not a deontic quality about it - certain people should perhaps do certain things, that's about it. Would you recommend Infinite Jest to everyone you know?
- I got halfway through Infinite Jest, so I am not as qualified as you to judge it. However, I often find that what is expressed in a novel can be very easily expressed in something shorter: a poem, perhaps, or a play. Maybe what is expressed in Infinite Jest is simply inexpressible in all other literary forms, but that's unlikely.
- I love you Lord.

I enjoy The hell out of Lovecraft but it isn't really terribly well written. Sure it's innovative in that it became a genre it itself but really his prose is pretty predictable. Never read a lot of his poetry. The Terrible Old Man is a fun little short story though.